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Complex (Roppongi)

by John McGee

Hiromi Yoshii specializes in prints by contemporary Japanese artists 
(Tabaimo on right, Mariko Mori in back) (Photos: John McGee)

Carnal pleasure, thy name is Roppongi. So what’s a new art gallery complex doing here? Like the friendly massage girls prowling nearby, meeting the customers halfway. 

Complex (the building’s official name) is a white, five-story art beacon shining out from the dingy backstreet of a forgotten valley deep in Roppongi’s medina. Most of its neighbors are crumbling heaps belching drunken salarymen from the faded velour doors of private bars. 

Roppongi’s not pretty, but it is central and easy to access. Such convenience is one strength of Complex. The other is its densely packed diversity. Five galleries (Hiromi Yoshii+Gallery Koyanagi Viewing Room, Gallery Min Min, Ota Fine Arts, Roentgenwerke and Taro Nasu) crowd the interior with a wide-ranging roster of contemporary artists, both Japanese and international, famous and obscure. On the top floors, there’s Hino Architects, an artist’s studio and an art manager’s office. Traumaris, a bar on the ground floor run by a prominent art writer, provides a thematic touch to the local watering hole. 

Complex, Roppongi's new five-story
art compound 

A thin band of disconnected cultural resources already surrounds Greater Roppongi. Akasaka has Gallery Side 2, the Japan Foundation and the Suntory Museum. Nogizaka has Gallery Ma; Nishi Azabu, antique shops. Aoyama Book Center, Axis and Tokyo Random Walk (opposite Complex in the Striped House Museum) sell art books. But Complex has the only dedicated contemporary art galleries in the heart of the pleasure quarters. 

It heralds a series of major changes in the area’s cultural map. The most immediate is the opening of the Mori Art Museum in October 2003 at the top of Roppongi Hills’ main tower just a couple of blocks away (Mori Building owns both Roppongi Hills and the Complex building). And construction has already begun on a new National Gallery near Aoyama Cemetery (to be completed late 2006). Over the next five years—the length of Complex’s lease—architect Naohiko Hino says, “Roppongi has the potential to become a cultural power.” 

The galleries here are smaller than those at the recently opened Shinkawa building. But gallerist Hiromi Yoshii hopes that, by being in the middle of an entertainment and business district, foot traffic will be higher. He wants Complex to provide a convenient stop for people who work and play in Roppongi and for out-of-town visitors. More significantly, he sees Complex offering a “first touch” to those who are new to art.

Looking in on the Tomomi Maekawa show
at Ota Fine Arts 

The gallerists hide the 37-year-old building’s age spots—narrow stairways and low ceilings—with fresh coats of white paint and their own youthful energy. This is Yoshii’s first gallery (he specializes in prints). And Gallery Min Min moved to Complex from the other side of Roppongi, where it opened just a year and a half ago. 

That’s not to say the group lacks experience. Ota Fine Arts, which represents Yayoi Kusama and other big names in Japanese contemporary art, was an Ebisu landmark for nine years. Tsutomu Ikeuchi has run his Roentgen space in various locations, most recently Kichijoji, for more than ten. And Taro Nasu’s gallery thrived in Sagacho for five years. 

These three young veterans saw Roppongi as an opportunity to join forces and explore the possibilities of this evolving neighborhood. As gallerist Hidenori Ota says, “Artists always take chances, so we have to follow them.”

[Update 2007: Hiromi Yoshii Gallery has moved to a gallery complex in Kiyosumi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan that opened in late 2005.]

©2007 John McGee

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